Shiny Media

... to enter our fantastic competition to win a Shiny Media internship! Yep, the LG Video Media Talent Award closes on 16th December. So, if you want to a) bag a trip to the 3GSM conference in Barcelona, b) learn about videoblogging from the Shiny Media team and c) win your very own LG Viewty to document your Shiny Media internship; you need to click here quick sharp.

Some eager individuals have already stolen a march on the competition by getting their entries in early - check out the below entry from Pollyanna Woodward. If you think you can do better you know what you need to do!

First there was the Eurovision song contest, then the European Cup (OK the least said about that one the better right now). Now the latest competition to excite us here at Shiny Towers is judging which is the best photographic image in Europe - finally a competition that us Brits might be able to win.

We've got together with our friends at LG to create a 'moblog' (a blog where you e-mail your images from your camera phone) called City Clickers. Just take a picture on your mobile, e-mail it directly to the site and you could be in with a chance of winning one of ten LG Viewty phones plus free phone bill for two months. The winners - as voted for by a panel of judges comprising the main European blog networks - get to become our official photographers for 8 weeks.

Thanks to all at Moblog.co.uk, especially Alfie, for their support plus all of European partners, including http://feschsamma.de/, http://daily-gadget.de/, http://fashion.blog.nl/, http://nieuwemedia.blog.nl/, http://www.trendencias.com/, http://xataka.com/, http://www.journaldugeek.com/. We love you all, though we still secretly think the entries from the UK are the best!

PS. My personal favourite - and the one that I think sums up Britain more than anything is the Winter Swim pictured here. Ouch!!

Here at Shiny towers we obviously believe passionately in new media. We also think - in fact know - that our readers are jolly influential people: well educated, rounded individuals who like to spend money, engage in debate and tinker with new media themselves (blogs, social networks yada yada yada). Funny then that big ad spends still seem disproportianately focused on TV and Radio when all the cool kids (and adults) are turning off their TVs and doing something more interesting instead. Yes things are changing slowly, but being impatient folk we're hoping to move things along a bit.

Which is why we've got together with our new ad agency Unanimis to hold a conference on July 6th, 11.30am at London's fantastic Centre Point. Called Brands and Blogs: Talking With The New Influentials it's an opportunity for the great and the good to talk about all the creative and commercial opportunities which new media brings.

Speakers include:
Steve Wing, Head of Research and Development, The Guardian
Helen Nowicka, Managing Director, Shiny Red
Richard Rocca, Senior Director, Glam.com
Jeremy Wright, CEO, B5 Media
Ashley Norris, Chief Executive, Shiny Media

This free event will be chaired by new media guru Mike Butcher. 

Well we have some very exciting news, which sadly we can't announce until next week. Until then  this post is to flag up the blue chip advertising we have on Tech Digest at the moment. Check out the newly re-designed site and you'll see campaigns for Dyson, Sony PS3, Philips Ambilight TVs and Gillette.

It is clear that brands are realising the huge influence of blogs like Tech Digest which are attracting readers many of whom aren't watching TV, listening to the radio or checking out more traditional sites.

Also worth investigating is a very interesting article here on the death of the page impression. Like other bloggers we think page impressions are a dreadful way of measuring a site's importance (and even worse buying them for advertising). Surely the number of unique users is a far better guide to a site's performance.